Vintage Movies of All Kinds Now in Stores

Film buffs will be in silver-screen heaven with the release Tuesday of several vintage movies that run the gamut from searing drama to slapstick comedy.

Making their home video debuts are writer-director John Cassevetes’ landmark “Shadows” and “Faces” (Fox Lorber). Produced in 1960, “Shadows” marked the intense actor’s first film as a director. He financed the acclaimed half-improvisational racial drama with his earnings from the TV series “Johnny Staccato.” Shot on 16mm for $40,000, “Shadows” received the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Cassevetes’ unsettling 1968 “Faces” was nominated for three Oscars, including best screenplay (Cassevetes), supporting actress (Lynn Carlin) and supporting actor (Seymour Cassel). Gena Rowlands and John Marley star in this riveting look at a couple whose marriage collapses after 14 years.

For those who love Bette Davis, FoxVideo is releasing two British thrillers ($20) that la Bette made during the ‘60s. In 1965’s scary “The Nanny,” a young boy (William Dix), accused of drowning his baby sister in the bathtub, insists that his nanny (Davis) is the actual culprit. In 1968’s “The Anniversary,” Davis devours the scenery whole in this wicked tale of a one-eyed control freak with three grown sons who will do anything to keep her boys under her thumb.

Don Knotts dishes up the laughs in three so-so slapstick farces from MCA/Universal ($15 each; $40 for the set): 1966’s “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,” 1967’s “The Reluctant Astronaut” and 1970’s “The Love God?” The best of the lot is “Mr. Chicken,” a lightweight horror comedy about a nervous would-be reporter who decides to get a big story by spending a night in the local haunted house.

MCA/Universal has dusted off three popular Rock Hudson romantic comedies ($15 each). In the saucy, sophisticated 1961 comedy “Lover Come Back,” Hudson and popular co-star Doris Day play competing Madison Avenue ad executives who fall in love; Tony Randall co-stars. That same year, Hudson traveled to the Italian Riveria to star with Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin in the sprightly “Come September.” Hudson and Lollobrigida team up again for 1964’s breezy marital comedy “Strange Bedfellows.”

Also new from MCA/Universal is the 1955 James Stewart western adventure “The Far Country” ($15), one of several gritty sagebrush sagas Stewart made in the ‘50s with the splendid director Anthony Mann. “The Far Country” is also available as part of “The James Stewart Western Collection” ($40), which features the 1952 Stewart-Mann collaboration “Bend of the River” and 1965’s Civil War drama “Shenandoah.”

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Gay Issues: Heather MacDonald’s acclaimed “Ballot Measure 9” (Fox Lorber) chronicles what happened in Oregon in 1992 as a result of Oregon Citizen’s Alliance’s anti-gay initiative.

“Silent Pioneers” (Water Bearer) is a compelling 1985 examination of senior members of the American gay and lesbian community.

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Bases Covered: On Tuesday, Orion Home Video releases “Dodgers On-Line” and “No Place Like Home: The Story of the 1995 Colorado Rockies” ($20 each). The one-hour documentaries look back at the teams’ 1995 stellar seasons.

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Killer Bs: New for Tuesday is “Fatally Yours” (Monarch), a fatally bad thriller about a real estate agent/writer (Rick Rossovich) who becomes fixated with a broken-down, abandoned mansion that had been owned by an organized crime family in the ‘20s. Sylvester Stallone’s son, Sage, Roddy McDowall and former James Bond George Lazenby also star in this murky mess.

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Coming Next Week: Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson reunite for the first time since “White Men Can’t Jump” for the action adventure “Money Train” (Columbia TriStar).

Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft and Jean Simmons learn “How to Make an American Quilt” (MCA/Universal).

Teen heartthrobs Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro star in “Tom and Huck” (Buena Vista, $20), Disney’s new version of Mark Twain’s venerable “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

Beau Bridges is President Richard Nixon and Ron Silver is Henry Kissinger in the 1995 TNT drama “Kissinger and Nixon” (Turner).

John Travolta and Harry Belafonte star in the satire “White Man’s Burden” (HBO). . . . Also new: “Daens” (Fox Lorber); “Murdered Innocence” (Columbia TriStar); “Yankee Zulu” (Columbia TriStar); and “Apart From Hugh” (Water Bearer).